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The Carbon Trust Green Business Fund

Energy efficiency support, energy assessments and funding for small and medium-sized businesses in England, Scotland and Wales

The Carbon Trust Green Business Fundis the energy efficiency support service for small and medium-sized companies in England, Wales and Scotland. It provides direct funded support through energy assessments, training workshops, equipment procurement support and up to £5,000 capital contribution per company towards your energy saving equipment purchase.

Apply now

Questions? See our FAQs, or call us on 020 7832 4773 to speak to one of our advisors.

Energy opportunity assessment

The Carbon Trust are offering energy opportunity assessments to small and medium sized businesses to help them identify energy saving opportunities, and to develop a robust business case for the purchase of the appropriate equipment (for further details on who can apply see our FAQs). Carbon Trust may provide this support remotely via telephone and email, or on-site.

These services are paid for by the Green Business Fund for a limited period.

Following an energy saving opportunity assessment, for those businesses wanting to improve their energy management practices, further support may be available through our Virtual Energy Manager to help implement a range of energy management activities from;

implementing an energy policy to

identifying the best ways to engage employees.

The Virtual Energy Manager is targeted at SMEs with an energy spend of over £50,000 and will be delivered remotely through a series of support modules delivered by a Carbon Trust expert.

Implementation advice

Implementation advice and equipment procurement support to help you find reputable suppliers who will install appropriately specified equipment for your business needs. Designed to support businesses with a specific energy saving project in mind (e.g. lighting), your organisation can receive up to 5 days of support from a Carbon Trust consultant – at no cost to your business. This is available for companies with up to 1,000 employees in England, Scotland or Wales.

Specific help available includes:

A feasibility check

Writing performance specifications appropriate for your business

Tendering support, including supplier identification and assessment of tenders.

Workshops

A series of workshops are planned to help small businesses work out how best to identify the energy saving opportunities available to them. Our advisers will be running these workshops with small groups of local businesses (aimed at companies with fewer than 50 employees) to show them how to make the most of this opportunity.

These services are paid for by the Green Business Fund for a limited period.

Energy Efficiency Webinars

Do you already know that you need to upgrade your lighting or you would like to learn more about how to improve the efficiency of your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems? The Green Business Fund will be running a series of technical webinars covering a range of topic areas. These presentations will last approximately 45 minutes to an hour and be delivered by a Carbon Trust Technical expert. Register your interest in attending one of these webinars using the links below:

A financial contribution towards your energy saving equipment

The Carbon Trust Green Business Fund is offeringa capital contribution of up to 15% of the project cost (up to a max of £5,000) to small and medium sized businesses, who could benefit from financial support when buying energy saving equipment.

This could mean up to £5,000 towards a new lighting system for your warehouse, heating and air conditioning equipment for your offices or a controls system for your factory - to help you rise to the challenge of becoming a greener business.

This support is available for a limited period on a first come, first served basis for small and medium sized businesses in England, Scotland and Wales (for further details on who can apply see the How to apply for a capital contribution (PDF) document). The minimum total size of the project must be £5,000, and equipment should be purchased from a Green Business Directory supplier or a BESA Supplier, to ensure that your supplier is properly accredited.

Applicants for a Green Business Fund capital contribution must be in receipt of a capital contribution offer prior to contracting a supplier to install the equipment – we cannot retrospectively fund energy efficiency projects that have already been contracted – this is to ensure that the project selected has been assessed by the Carbon Trust as optimal for your business.

How to find out more and make an application

To discuss how your business could benefit from the support on offer, or if you have any questions about the Green Business Fund please email us on greenbusiness@carbontrust.com or call us on 020 7832 4773 to speak to one of our advisors.

FAQs

What companies can apply into the Green Business Fund?

The Green Business Fund is an energy efficiency support service aimed primarily at small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in England, Wales and Scotland. SMEs are defined as such if they meet two of the three following criteria:

• No more than 250 employees;

• Annual turnover not in excess of £25.9m; or

• Annual balance sheet not in excess of £12.9m

and if they are not more than 25% owned by an entity which does not meet the criteria.

Franchises are also eligible providing they have a different registered company number and are a separate legal entity to their managing partnership.

Do you help with funding for public sector and domestic energy cost reductions?

The Green Business Fund is open to Small & medium sized businesses, Charities, Schools, and Sole Traders who meet the scheme criteria. Public sector, domestic properties and new builds are not eligible for support from the Green Business Fund.

The capital contribution

In order to apply for the capital contribution, you would need to be replacing equipment you currently own with energy efficient equipment where the savings can be clearly defined. We will look to fund projects where the payback period on energy savings is within 5 years.

If you have a project that provides energy savings that will pay back in over 5 years, then we will fund the relevant contribution on the first five years’ worth of energy savings.

Applications for the capital contribution must be approved prior to purchase and installation of the equipment.

The applying company will receive the capital contribution upon completion of the project and issuing of a commissioning certificate.

The capital contribution is a private contribution to provide an incentive for the purchase of energy efficient equipment. It works in a separate way to the Carbon Trust loans, and therefore does not need to be paid back over time.

The capital contribution cannot be used to part pay for work that has already been completed and installed prior to the application being made to the Carbon Trust Green Business Fund.

Companies must meet the SME criteria, as defined in ‘What companies can apply into the Green Business Fund’. For companies who are part of a group structure, the total maximum entitlement is £5,000 across the group.

Are there certain suppliers we can work with?

In order to qualify for funding, businesses must be working with the Carbon Trust Accredited Suppliers listed on the Green Business Directory or BESA Suppliers. The Carbon Trust wants to ensure that all projects implemented through the fund are of a high quality which will help them meet the projected savings. Because Accredited Suppliers are assessed against qualitative criteria, both the customer and the Carbon Trust can have confidence in the success of the project, and that the solution is well designed and fit for purpose.

How do I find if a supplier/installer is on the list?

Can a company apply into the scheme on more than one occasion?

A business can apply for multiple capital contributions, to the maximum of £5,000 in total.

We have just recently installed some energy saving equipment, is this something you would help with?

No, unfortunately we are not able to provide funding towards projects after installation.

Is there any financial obligation with the services?

All services (Workshops, Energy opportunity assessments and Implementation advice) are fully funded through the Green Business Fund so will carry no cost to the applicant. There is also no obligation for each company to follow through with any of the energy saving opportunities identified to them, though of course we hope that all fund recipients are able to do so.